On the 21st March, on International Colour Day, a new immersive exhibition opens at the magnificently opulent Royal Pavilion in Brighton. The Colour exhibition will showcase vivid room installations, art interventions and sensory experiences and explore how colour influenced the Pavilion’s stunning aesthetic in the early 1800s. But the exhibition is also designed to be fun and highly emotive and Dr Alexandra Loske is the inspiration and driving force behind it.
Dr Alexandra Loske a British-German art historian, writer and museum curator who is fast becoming a leading authority on the history of colour, with numerous publications, presentations and exhibitions to her name. Now the Curator of the Royal Pavilion and other historic properties, such as Preston Manor, this part-immersive exhibition is largely based on Alexandra’s doctoral research and expertise. Alexandra spent nearly seven years meticulously studying colour theory, 19th-century design and the Pavilion’s architectural history, uncovering fascinating details, including the secrets behind 18th and 19th-century hand-painted wallpapers and Victorian over-paint.
If you are lucky enough to meet her, Alexandra’s interest and excitement about colour is both infectious and tangible and she speaks of King George IV with the familiarity and affection of someone who has (metaphorically speaking) walked by his side for many a mile. Sussex Exclusive caught up with her recently in advance of the exhibition to find out more:
A journey into colour
I’d been living and working in the UK since the 1990s and in fact, I even served champagne to Princess Diana once. In the early 2000s, I decided to do an MA in Art History. I had no particular ambition at the time, it was just something I was interested in. I really enjoyed it, and when the opportunity arose to apply for a Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) grant at the University of Sussex to study the history of colour at the Royal Pavilion, I grabbed it. I already had a great interest in the costume and textiles of the Romantic period and had the advantage of speaking German (Germany being very influential in this period). This type of research is normally instigated by a museum when they become aware of a gap in their research, and this was the case here.
It wasn’t great timing because I was expecting a baby, and to be honest, those early years were exhausting. I had to be highly organised and focused but the research went brilliantly and subsequently I have written a number of books and speak widely about my subject. It changed the course of my life and has led to many wonderful things.
Colour at the Pavilion
The team and I had to approach this exhibition with caution. It has to appeal to a wide audience, but it also has to respect the Pavilion interiors. Each room there focusses on different colours and is already a work of art in its own right. And every inch of the Pavilion is already covered in colour and that really is very representative of both Brighton and George (King George IV). However, that also means you have to manage any installation or intervention with great care.
Enter King George IV, aka Prinny and the First Gentleman of Europe
George was extremely interested in the arts and was a great collector. He also loved the process of designing interiors and dabbled in colour in various other royal places. But it was Brighton where he was really able to explore and experiment with this extraordinarily opulent palace. He was very involved and would hire the best people to implement his ideas. And you have to remember how experimental and pioneering he was. For example, the complexities of painting in red or using silver to decorate things can’t be underestimated. And George was the first to try a new shade of yellow. In fact, he painted a whole suite of rooms in it, and it is this yellow that these days we all know as the standard colour of New York taxis or American school buses and which was used so successfully by Van Gogh.
From elation to calm
In planning the exhibition, we made the existing colour themes of each room our starting point. I want the exhibition to be fun and to play with the idea that colour is immersive, emotive and stimulating. Each room should evoke a different emotion from elated and inspired to calm, and there will be colourful surprises too. There will be pinks in the long gallery leading to sky blue and then turning to yellow.
One of my favourite installations will be upstairs where there will be large, coloured paper flowers. This links to the history of colour as flower painting was a big part of the Romantic era. There will also be a fabulous exhibition in the Banqueting Room, where we will substitute the usual feast with a feast of colour replacing the dishes with different jars of pigment and replacing the plates with colour wheels. Pigment is arresting and appealing in its own right and it will be a really diverse assortment with some pigments sourced from a pigment archive from an artist in Lewes.
In the Salon, which is crimson, we will be focussing on silver and gold. George loved a bit of bling and liked to cover things with silver. It’s not an easy material to design with but we will have a silver dragon hat created by the famous hat maker, Stephen Jones, and a complete set of George’s medals in bronze, silver and gold, which haven’t been displayed as a set before.
In Queen Victoria’s bedroom, we will explore the chemical colour revolution of the mid-19th century with different costumes. This was a time when ladies fashion exploded in terms of colour, although some of the dyes used were actually very harmful and could lead to death. We have also invited various artists to exhibit in different rooms and there will be lots of other exhibits, including some of the rarest and most beautiful historic books on colour, a range of historic costume and original watercolours from the period before the Nash alterations of the Pavilion from 1815.
An exhibition of intent
I want visitors to the exhibition to have fun and learn more about the use of colour at the Pavilion. It would be great if they came away understanding, for example, why a wall was painted in a particular colour and with more of an understanding of the history and the stories behind the colours at the Pavilion. I hope the exhibition creates an emotional journey for visitors that they will remember with a renewed sense of what a special place the Pavilion is as well as how sensational it must have been in the 1820s.”
The Colour at the Royal Pavilion exhibition will run from 21st March 2025 to the 19th October 2025. It will feature workshops, artist collaborations, a series of ‘Colour Conversations’ hosted by Alexandra and other events to enhance the experience, ensuring that visitors engage with the theme of colour in diverse ways.
Alexandra’s forthcoming book with Yale University Press is due for published in late June.
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